Tales of former PM's humility echo in the corridors of power
Hindustan Times Jammu|December 29, 2024
It was July 2003 and the Congress brass had gathered in Shimla for a party chief ministers' conference.
Saubhadra Chatterji

NEW DELHI: Senior leaders were lodged at a five-star hotel close to the venue. Hours before the inaugural session, one of Pranab Mukherjee's aides came rushing down the stairs to help his boss prepare for the day. As he took a turn on the corridor leading to Mukherjee's room, the aide was gobsmacked. There, outside the closed doors of the hotel room, Manmohan Singh, then the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, was waiting patiently with a bunch of documents in his hand for Mukherjee to come out.

Tales of Manmohan Singh's modesty, grace and humility are folklores in the corridors of power. As a Rajya Sabha member, Singh loved to come to the old Parliament library to spend some quiet time and read articles on economy in foreign and Indian magazines. One day, he ordered a glass of lassi at the Delhi milk department counter outside the Central Hall, but at the time of payment, Singh—not the one to carry wads of currency notes—found himself short of cash.

This story is from the December 29, 2024 edition of Hindustan Times Jammu.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the December 29, 2024 edition of Hindustan Times Jammu.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM HINDUSTAN TIMES JAMMUView All
Hindustan Times Jammu

Tough questions for India after two debacles in a row

A second series loss raises more questions than answers as head coach's performance comes under the lens

time-read
6 mins  |
January 08, 2025
Hindustan Times Jammu

Govt Forecasts FY25 GDP Growth at 6.4%

India's economy is expected to grow 6.4% in the current fiscal year ending March, the National Statistics Office said on Tuesday, below the initial government projection of 6.5-7%.

time-read
1 min  |
January 08, 2025
Hindustan Times Jammu

Car sales unexpectedly drop by 2% in December, says Fada

Indian car dealers clocked a surprise 2% drop in sales in December, with high year-end discounts boosting demand only for a handful of showroom owners, a dealers' body said on Tuesday.

time-read
1 min  |
January 08, 2025
Hindustan Times Jammu

Nippon says there's no plan B to blocked US Steel deal

NIPPON'S PLANNED PURCHASE OF ITS US RIVAL WAS BLOCKED LAST WEEK BY THE US PRESIDENT BIDEN

time-read
2 mins  |
January 08, 2025
Hindustan Times Jammu

MKT Benchmarks Rebound After Two-Day Decline As Reliance, ICICI Bank Rally

Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty rebounded on Tuesday after a sharp decline in the previous two sessions, driven by intense buying in blue-chip stocks like Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and L&T amid a firm trend in global markets.

time-read
1 min  |
January 08, 2025
Hindustan Times Jammu

Wagh Bakri Tea To Invest ₹100 Cr For New Mfg Unit

Ahmedabad-headquartered Wagh Bakri Tea Group will set up a new plant in Gujarat with an investment of over ₹100 crore to increase its raw material storage capacity and instant tea output, CEO Sanjay Singal said on Tuesday.

time-read
1 min  |
January 08, 2025
Hindustan Times Jammu

Duty cut on smartphone parts to hit electronics ecosystem, jobs

Any reduction in the customs duty on smartphone parts in the forthcoming budget will harm India's developing component ecosystem, discourage investment, increase imports, and make local firms uncompetitive, potentially resulting in job losses, think tank GTRI said on Tuesday.

time-read
1 min  |
January 08, 2025
Hindustan Times Jammu

Infosys taps staff to build ideas factory

In a first, Infosys Ltd has asked employees to think out of the box and come up with new ideas that can be scaled up and offered to clients as part of a business incubator programme.

time-read
2 mins  |
January 08, 2025
Hindustan Times Jammu

Microsoft to Invest $3 Billion in AI, Cloud Expansion in India

CEO Satya Nadella, however, did not give a time frame for the spending

time-read
2 mins  |
January 08, 2025
Hindustan Times Jammu

Banks' profits to moderate in FY26 as bad assets rise

Increase in bad assets will impact banks' profitability in FY26, a domestic rating agency said on Tuesday.

time-read
2 mins  |
January 08, 2025